Editor’s note: In the latest installment of our recurring First Stop feature, we asked celebrated Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes about some of his go-to spots in Lisbon. Born and raised in Lisbon; now splitting his time between East London and Portugal, Nuno has dedicated his life to exploring and perfecting his cooking. Mendes is a pioneer of modern gastronomy, a traveler or “viajante,” who has explored the globe in search of unique ingredients, innovative techniques and first-hand experience on local farms.
In 2017 Nuno published his first solo cookbook, ‘Lisboeta’ (Bloomsbury publishing), which inspired his partnership with restaurant group MJMK to launch Lisboeta (2022) – Nuno’s “love letter to Lisbon” – on Charlotte Street, Soho. Most recently, in February 2023, Nuno launched Cozinha das Flores and Flôr, a neighborhood restaurant and bar in the historic center of Porto.
For me, some of my favorite dishes when I return to Lisbon are the following:
Rissois de camarão – prawn rissoles
Grilled Alentejo pork plumas with a tomato salad and piri piri.These are the dishes that make me salivate when I fly back home. Both of them symbolize the food of Lisbon and they always taste better in situ.
The pork dish is one you can find with reasonable quality in most good tascas or old school eateries throughout the city. I prefer to sit outside to soak in the sun, perhaps because I now live in London where there’s so little of it.
Prawn rissoles are a special dish to me, personally, because they took me on a culinary journey, focusing my energy on introducing Portuguese food to the London public. The dish is delicious and carries with it both history and gastronomic tradition. The filling is a mixture of prawns, coriander, and a piri piri-laced bechamel (not traditional but super tasty), and makes it one of my all-time favorite snacks. Especially if they are freshly made and served warm and crispy.
Growing up in Lisbon in the late 70s and 80s, I remember the rissoles sitting on the display shelves of pastelarias withering away and served cold and devoid of texture and taste. So much so that I only recaptured my passion for them when I ate them fresh, made with a squeeze of fresh lemon and flakes of good salt. Now in Lisbon there are places that understand the value of well-made rissoles so I tend to go to these places to enjoy them. However, these eateries are in danger of going extinct…some of the older operators are being pushed out and replaced with newer concepts that seem to attract the new international crowd that is populating the center of Lisbon these days.
These eateries exist mostly in my dreams now – though O Coelho da Rocha, or maybe Das Flores come closest, but without the outdoor seating. The menu at Das Flores is a celebration of the Portuguese gastronomic classics. If you get a chance to visit Das Flores on a weekly basis and see it over a full month of lunches you will find the most amazing array of specials that celebrate our tradition. From arroz de pato to dobrada, feijoada, bacalhau à lagareiro, massada de marisco, filetes de pescada com arroz de tomate, cabidela de galo, rissois com salada russa, and on and on. They just keep turning hit after hit after delicious hit, all from a very small kitchen and all under a tenner per dish, served with love and knowledge to the local clientele. This is one of the hardest places to get into – the locals have booked it continuously for the months to come. Everyone knows everyone and they all sit and listen when they are there. Susana is the boss and she’ll tell you what you’ll eat; her mother will cook it and her father will watch over the dining room. It’s magic – so simple and so incredibly complex.
To achieve this in our businesses is the dream for so many of us, and yet it’s so hard to do. This should be the restaurant model that we look up to.
These are spots that still feel local, the staff have been working there for donkey’s years and everyone knows you by name. It feels local, and at lunch, there are lots of local workers eating there. Dinners are a little more refined, although they still feel local with plenty of families, and despite the presence of some tourists, the prices are reasonable and the menu is still the one from opening day, thirty some years ago… though maybe with some edits made with a pen. There’s a fridge displaying an array of desserts which are cut to order, a large-screen TV and, if you come in on the right day, there might be a game on and lots of locals drinking beers and eating tremoços or snails, depending on the season.
The dishes are prepared traditionally but the quality of the product is amazing, second to none. The pork dish I mentioned is made using very high quality blackfoot Alentejo pork with its very dark meat streaked with a lovely marble, tasting of acorns, which these piggies ate for most of their lives. The meat is simply grilled to a nice crisp outside with loads of rock salt, then it’s carved and heavily doused with good-quality olive oil and more rock salt. The tomatoes are typically bull’s heart variety, deep red and juicy. There are thin rings of tender onions scattered over the tomatoes and more salt on top. The piri piri is homemade and always available upon request. They know me well, so when I arrive, it’s always on the table.
For the rissoles, the prawns are also of a good quality, chopped coarsely and not overcooked, with lots of coriander and fried garlic in the filling as well as a bit of piri piri or a chili of sorts. They are fried to order and arrive very crispy and hot. Ideally, a lemon wedge accompanies these, although it’s rare to see. I always eat them at a counter standing up. It’s my mid-morning pick me up. “Elevenses,” as we call it – five minutes of pure indulgence as I get ready for the next chapter of my day. Pedras sparkling water is a must: ice cold, with ice and lemon. That’s me happy.
I like to stick to these choices and it’s usually a quick stop so there’s only space for a light meal. If you’re stopping for a bigger meal, then perhaps do as the locals do: they always go for the dish of the day. This is their canteen so the dish of the day repeats based on the day of the week, for several months: bacalhau à Lagareiro, arroz de pato, feijoada, filetes de pescada com salada russa, among others, are permanently on rotation. That’s what the locals get – and they are the ones in the know. These sorts of eateries are mostly family owned, where the mother or father are in the kitchen, and the sons and daughters help with service and take care of the front of house. It’s crazy to think that in these situations, the families work together six or seven days per week. The lighting is typically fluorescent; there’s not a lot here in terms of aesthetics, but these restaurants are the real gems. And they are still affordable and deliver consistently. The clientele is local and consists of mostly office workers on the weekdays. On a Saturday, it changes a bit and you see some old friends of the business along with lucky tourists. Typically, it’s impossible to book since reservations are always made in person and ahead of time. There’s no website, Instagram or a working phone number, and that’s refreshing. Also, there are no selfies or pictures of the food. Guests come to eat and enjoy! I love it.
Afterwards, I’ll always wander around town, take in the sunbeams and feel the noise and energy of the city. Maybe I’ll go for a nice pastel de nata or maybe some ice cream if it’s warm. Most often, it’s a coffee that does the trick since I have to run into my next meeting or phase of the day.
Published on July 08, 2024